


Leaps and Bounds

by indigoimpulse



Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: M/M, all in Au, also hyungwon is my bias, aye aye jumping the bandwagon why not, i use any excuse to write about my smol prince, i've been wanting to write this one for quite a while anyway, monsta x - Freeform, okayybye, the mv was so gay do you really blame me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-26
Updated: 2016-05-26
Packaged: 2018-07-10 09:55:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6978586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/indigoimpulse/pseuds/indigoimpulse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hyungwon never used to run far, but now he wants to run further than ever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Leaps and Bounds

**Author's Note:**

> this is my first monsta x ficlet - contains scenes from the mv and some scenes of my own because i don't want to be *too* unoriginal. i somehow find myself thinking this is quite heavily based off the mv anyway lmao. enjoy nonetheless! :)

Hyungwon never used to run far, but he's getting worse. This time Minhyuk finds him at the village gates, his thin white shirt clutching at his chest pathetically. Minhyuk is scared of the February frost that dyes Hyungwon's skin translucent violet. Usually he only runs as far as the village hall, but Minhyuk knows he's yearning for escape, though the reason remains unknown. Hyungwon's answer has always been vague; something about his home situation being difficult. Minhyuk knows not to probe further.

Whenever Hyungwon goes running, Minhyuk carries him home and runs him a warm bath. But by the time Hyungwon wakes up the water is always cold. As always, Hyungwon's eyes stutter open and, as always, he instinctively reaches out to grab his clothes from Minhyuk's lap. When the material in his hands is black, not white, he falters.  
'Rebel clothes.' he murmurs. Minhyuk shifts in his seat. He knows all too well that an official's son in rebel garb would cause a stir, but he'd checked and double-checked in Hyungwon's closet. It was empty.  
'I'm sorry. It was all I could find - your closet had nothing in it.'  
'Figures.' Hyungwon shrugs, sliding out of the bath and slipping the black rebel clothes on. They suit him, Minhyuk thinks. They cling to him and show off his lanky frame.  
'Pardon?'  
'I said, 'thank you for the clothes'.' Hyungwon walks Minhyuk to the door. 'My father will be home soon. You'd best go.'  
Minhyuk doesn't protest.

Hyungwon decides wearing the rebel clothes to meet Minhyuk's friends is the best idea. Minhyuk agrees, although he knows Jooheon and Hyunwoo will see through it. And he's right; Jooheon catches the articulation and wealthy upbringing as soon as Hyungwon opens his mouth.  
'You're an official's son.' it's not a question, nor does Jooheon expect an answer. He doesn't get one, so Kihyun voices his thoughts.  
'How come you're in all-black, then?'  
‘They're Minhyuk's clothes.' is the simple response.  
'I thought you and Minhyuk were just friends.' Kihyun counters.  
Minhyuk doesn't hesitate to interrupt.  
'We are.' he says, perhaps a little too rushed and panicked. 'Hyungwon...he goes running sometimes.'  
'Doesn't help.' Jooheon mutters. Minhyuk cringes. He wishes Jooheon wasn't so foreword and rude.  
Hyungwon doesn't try and stifle his sigh. Minhyuk knows he is rude too, but he doesn't mind nearly as much, because it's Hyungwon. 'Sometimes when I'm asleep, I get up and run. It's always away from the village, away from home. I've never gotten very far; the other day I managed to get to the village gates but I don't reckon I'll get much further. Minhyuk sometimes comes to find me. He cleans me up and makes sure I'm okay.'  
'Impressive, coming from an official's son.' Jooheon observes. Hyungwon is agitated at this; Minhyuk can see this from his tight jaw and hard eyes.  
'It shouldn't matter to you who my father is. You should forget I even have a father.' he says, slowly, evenly. It's like he's not even angry.  
And just like that, everyone forgets.

Hyunwoo suggests they do something, and everyone agrees. As they break into a jog, Hyunwoo tosses Hyungwon something coarse and white. He turns it over in his hands.  
'What's this for?'  
'You won't need it today, but you'll want to keep in on your person if you want to spend time with us more often.'  
Hyunwoo doesn't smile when he delivers the reply, but when Hyungwon pockets the mask, the older boy can't help but grin.

Jooheon is quick to jump to conclusions. So Minhyuk is amused when Jooheon's doubt at Hyungwon being able to keep up with them turns drastically to pleasant shock. Because, in fact, Hyungwon can outrun both Changkyun, and Hoseok. If Kihyun wasn't on crutches, Minhyuk thinks as he watches Hyungwon lope gracefully, easily, he'd still be able to beat him. Minhyuk is still admiring Hyungwon's legs, poured elegantly into tight-fitting rebel trousers, when they reach their destination. Changkyun likes to call it the 'clubhouse', but he is a child and Minhyuk chooses not to listen to him. He knows why they are here, their special shack with its run-down door and faded, amber-painted walls. And he is angry with Jooheon for not forgetting; for being difficult and prejudiced. Minhyuk knows what is coming as Jooheon leads Hyungwon to the middle of the room. He expects the cheers and catcalls that come from his friends as Jooheon calls him to the centre, even though he's insisted time and time again that they're just friends, just friends, _just friends_. He also expects to be made by Jooheon to coax the broad sapphire petals past Hyungwon's porcelain lips. What he doesn't expect is the way Hyungwon is bathed in ease; he seems like a different person, encompassed by the laugh-inducing high of the drug. But, as Minhyuk lets the petals pass his own lips, he forgets to care, or even notice, Hyungwon's new persona. He's barely aware of Jooheon and Hyunwoo basically fucking in the corner, or that Kihyun and someone else are making out shamelessly in front of everyone. In his stupor, Minhyuk realises that the entire room is so shrouded in the buzz of the bright blue petals that no one particularly cares about what he and Hyungwon are doing.

Which is why Minhyuk makes his way clumsily over to Hyungwon. He nearly falls, but giggles when an uncharacteristically smiling Hyungwon catches him.  
'We're just friends, right?' Minhyuk hiccups, his tongue stumbling carelessly over each syllable.  
Hyungwon hums dismissively.  
'Just friends.' he mumbles.  
And then their lips are colliding in a drug-induced, exciting, _friendly_ kiss. A kiss where Minhyuk can taste the barbed sweetness of the flowers on Hyungwon's lips, a kiss where Minhyuk knows Hyungwon has kissed before because of the way the cracked desert of rolling rose that are Hyungwon's lips caress Minhyuk's own in a lapis-tinted paradise of being _just friends_ but probably more than that because when the paradise fades Hyungwon is out of breath as he insists he and Minhyuk aren't _just friends_ anymore.  
Minhyuk smiles at that.

Minhyuk is happy because Jooheon likes Hyungwon. He only likes him because he could take the drugs, and Minhyuk thinks Jooheon is extremely shallow for thinking that but he doesn't mind too much if it means Hyungwon can spend time with him and his friends without tension. But Hyungwon being able to spend time with Minhyuk and his friends backfires - Minhyuk blames Hyunwoo for saying they don't need masks. And they don't - they're just playing around, innocent, not a flower in sight. But the government still hates rebels. Which is why Hyungwon still gets slapped round the face by one of the white-clad officials for wearing black and holding Minhyuk's hand. Minhyuk stands up. He wants to say something to the man, he wants to swear and hit and shove and cry. But the man looks at Minhyuk - a look full of hatred, fierce eyes and snarling lips, and Minhyuk gets scared. He sits down again, cheeks red. The man is Hyungwon's father and he is the reason for Hyungwon's difficult situation at home and never in his life has Minhyuk felt so simultaneously angry and terrified. Hyungwon's father walks away and Minhyuk's grip on Hyungwon's hand tightens. Hyungwon doesn't let go. But nor does he say a word for the remainder of the day.

Minhyuk doesn't see Hyungwon for the next few days. Kihyun asks if they've broken up and Minhyuk insisted they haven't they haven't _they haven't,_ but he can't be sure. The only thing he can be sure of is that Hyungwon isn't okay because he hasn't been running for more than a week and Minhyuk needs to check on him _now._ When he tells Jooheon his plan, because he tells Jooheon everything, Jooheon pats his shoulder and twists his mouth into a sort of grimacing smile.  
'It's your turn to go running now.' he says.  
Minhyuk nods and slips the mask over his face.

Minhyuk has to wait until nightfall to check on Hyungwon, because Hyungwon’s father is outside the house all day, sitting on the porch, smoking a cigarette and scaring Minhyuk out of his mind. Minhyuk’s digital watch reads 00:14 when the lights on the street go out, and he waits until 00:34 to make his move because he is paranoid and wants to make sure Hyungwon’s father is definitely asleep. He slips in through the back door and passes the kitchen and the bathroom he takes Hyungwon to every time he goes running. He knows it’s childish but he crosses his fingers and holds his breath as he inches past Hyungwon’s father’s room, his heart thumping out a haggard foxtrot inside of him. Being a child works and he makes it to Hyungwon’s room, smiling smugly under the mask. He pulls the well-oiled, unlocked door open and his heart surges when he sees a figure in the corner – it means Hyungwon is still there, still safe. Minhyuk approaches the figure, pulling the mask off his face and balances his finger on the switch of his torch. But all of a sudden there’s a violent jerk and a muffled shriek and Minhyuk, panicked, presses his thumb down on the torch. The room blooms with light.  
‘Hyungwon?’

Hyungwon is still there, and he is still safe. But Hyungwon is also tied at the hands and ankles and wrist with thick rope, and his lips are pulled shut beneath rough cloth and Minhyuk is frozen he’s so terrified. Bruises that the soft daylight hide so well swell violet under the harsh white torchlight. Minhyuk is hurt. His arms shake as he lifts Hyungwon onto his shoulders – he is so weak he could crumble into a million pieces or fade into dust at any moment and Jooheon is right; it is Minhyuk’s turn to run as he runs out of the house and runs to the other end of the village and runs into the shack. He cuts the ropes off Hyungwon and kisses the alarmed red welts on his dissolving ghostly skin and strokes Hyungwon’s face and cries and unties the gag. Hyungwon opens his cracked lips that are no longer flushed and alive. Minhyuk is torn; he doesn’t want Hyungwon to speak because his vocal chords are getting ripped apart just by breathing but he wants to hear that elegant voice and that thick lilt. Hyungwon speaks anyway – speaks the first words he’s said for more than a week.  
‘Help me.’  
And Minhyuk does. He tempts petal after blue petal past Hyungwon’s dying lips, in the hope that the drug might spark the tiniest slither of life within him, or in hope Hyungwon might be able to breathe without sounding rattling and terrifying.  
‘This is why you haven’t been running, isn’t it?’ Minhyuk asks. Hyungwon nods, but barely.  
‘Have you eaten?’ Hyungwon closes his eyes and his head lolls to the left, and then the right, after about ten years. Minhyuk sobs.  
‘You’re dying.’ It hurts to say it, but the answer hurts so much more.  
‘I know.’

Minhyuk stays with Hyungwon until sunrise, feeding him flowers. Hyunwoo enters the shack just as the sun is coming up, followed by a hobbling Kihyun. Hyungwon has passed out seven times and Minhyuk is scared. Kihyun makes Minhyuk tell him everything that happens which makes him sob and sob and sob, and meanwhile Hyunwoo is standing silently, watching, eyebrows furrowed in something that looks like concern and perhaps fatigue but definitely not sympathy because Minhyuk knows sympathy is dead to Hyunwoo. And then Hyunwoo speaks to Minhyuk, quietly but firmly.  
‘You need to leave.’ Minhyuk says no. He clings to Hyungwon’s crumbling body and doesn’t want Hyunwoo to force the sapphire petals down his throat, but they find their way into his system anyway. Soon Minhyuk’s head is filled with toxic light-headedness and Hyungwon _isn’t there_ as Hyunwoo leads him out of the shack and back home. Minhyuk doesn’t think he needs to leave Hyungwon, and through tears, he babbles loud nothings to Hyunwoo, who insists Hyungwon is in an ‘unstable condition’ and Minhyuk would be ‘too hurt’ to see Hyungwon ‘so weak.’ Minhyuk screams that it’s bullshit, bullshit, _bullshit_ but he stays at home anyway and convulses with tears as he watches Hyunwoo run back to the shack.  
Minhyuk’s time for running is over.

Hyunwoo visits Minhyuk at home every day for the next week, giving him detailed descriptions of Hyungwon’s condition. He says that Hyungwon is still malnourished but he and Jooheon robbed some official’s houses for bread and white rice and potato and cheese. Minhyuk shakes head and says they shouldn’t have robbed the official’s house. Hyunwoo smiles wryly.  
‘We were helping your boyfriend, you know.’  
Minhyuk’s cheeks flourish with scarlet. Hyungwon is not his boyfriend, he thinks. He’s just a not-friend.  
‘But you could have done it in a way that made things better for Hyungwon, and better for the officials too.’  
Hyunwoo laughs. It is a good sound that sounds like wild coyotes and Minhyuk wishes he’d laugh more often.  
‘Think about it this way; it was better for the officials because they were helping safe a life.’ he says, slugging Minhyuk playfully on the shoulder.  
Minhyuk nods and smiles and punches Hyunwoo back. He wants to save his smile for Hyungwon but he honestly can’t help it.

It’s been about a week since Hyunwoo said Minhyuk couldn’t see Hyungwon. He and Hyunwoo are eating ice creams on Minhyuk’s front porch when Minhyuk asks a question.  
‘Has Hyungwon been running?’  
‘No. He tried on the third night, but he only got about ten steps before he collapsed. Kihyun has duct taped him to the bed.’  
Minhyuk blanches for a long while, letting the pink, diabetes-inducing heaven flow out of his cone and onto his hands. He is enraged. He drops his cone onto the ground he’s so mad.  
‘You’re just as bad as his father.’ His voice rattles from his lips, an uneven growl that doesn’t quite convey his anger.  
‘I don’t think you understand, Minhyuk.’ Hyunwoo is still calm, and Minhyuk wants to scream and beat him and run away. ‘If we didn’t restrain him he’d be dead by now. We’re doing both you and him a fa-’  
‘How is he doing?’ Minhyuk stands up and wipes his hands on his trousers. They come away cold and still pink. His heart is doing a gymnastics routine in his chest; he rescued Hyungwon from his prison only for him to be trapped again by friends. By _friends_.  
Hyunwoo pauses, uncertain. ‘He’s doing fine. But wh-’  
‘Let’s go to the shack.’  
Hyunwoo doesn’t disagree, but he makes Minhyuk change his trousers and wash his hands before they leave.

Kihyun is in the main room of the shack when Hyunwoo and Minhyuk get there. Minhyuk bundles Kihyun out of the room and slams the door. He scours the room for Hyungwon. He is sitting against one of the walls, the back of his black rebel shirt dyed a faint canary because of the powdery paint Changkyun and Hoseok slapped on in an effort to brighten the place up. He’s not tied to the bed but he wraps his wrists around his knees and Minhyuk can see the dreaded grey tape protruding from Hyungwon’s jacket sleeves and just above his socks. And he's not free completely, but he's not  _dying_ anymore. Hyungwon looks up. And he looks tired and hungry and weak but he suddenly smiles this million-watt smile and Minhyuk, for the second time that day, could cry. He collapses onto Hyungwon’s shoulder and opens the floodgates.  
Hyungwon raises an eyebrow and smiles the smallest bit.  
‘Shouldn’t I be the one crying?’ he says, and his voice is not disintegrating away anymore, it’s alive, alive, _so alive._ Alive with pleasing cadences and graceful timbre and Minhyuk is so ugly right now but he honestly wouldn’t be able to stop crying if he tried. Minhyuk hiccups and Hyungwon chokes out a laugh like music. And in that laugh there is _Hyungwon_ , with his snappy rude attitude and his exquisite legs and his stupid midnight runs.  
'I missed you.' Minhyk says. And he knows Hyungwon probably knows what he means.  
‘I missed you too.’ he hums, letting his head loll on Minhyuk’s shoulder which is trembling with bawls.  
The rest of the afternoon is spent with Hyungwon laughing at Minhyuk’s tears. And Minhyuk would probably consider the laughter rude if it was Jooheon or Hoseok. But the thing is, the laugh is coming from Hyungwon’s pretty, pretty lips.  
And that, Minhyuk thinks, is probably what makes it okay.


End file.
